Self-knowledge and social desirability of personality traits

Abstract

Research into the self-concept has shown that self-knowledge is aected by factors such as trait desirability, trait vagueness, and self-variability. Among these, social desirability appears to play a prominent role. In a multidimensional view of the self, however, several studies indicate that in special conditions people show adequate selfknowledge in speci®c personality dimensions. The present study tests this with respect to extraversion and anxiety predisposition on a sample of 160 late adolescents. The main results con®rm the prominent in¯uence of social desirability, but they also provide support for the hypothesis of the speci®city of self-perception. Despite a common pattern, the eects of desirability appeared, to some extent, to be less strong for anxiety than for extraversion. Several possible interpretations of this ®nding are discussed.

Who Overrates, Who Underrates? Personality and Its Link to Self–Other Agreement of Leadership Effectiveness

“…In line with previous research, we argue that extraverted leaders have higher self compared to other ratings of effectiveness because (a) extraversion positively relates to effectiveness ratings (Judge et al, 2006) and (b) leaders high on an extraversion preference show more socially desirable ratings (Meleddu & Guicciardi, 1998). Thus, leaders with an extraverted preference ought to have higher self-ratings of effectiveness, as these are more socially desirable in leadership settings.…”

“…This is mainly explained by the circumstance that the process of creating a particular self-perception would tie attentional and cognitive resources that intuitive persons preferably use for their creative thoughts and open-minded way of thinking. Second, intuitive leaders are less prone to provide socially desired self-ratings and thus should not have inflated self-ratings (Meleddu & Guicciardi, 1998). Third, supervisor, peer, subordinate, and self-ratings of leadership effectiveness are positively linked to a leader’s intuition preference (Vincent, Ward, & Denson, 2015; Johnson et al, 1997; Page, Roberts, & Platt, 2014) whereby the intuition preference has a similarly strong impact on self and other ratings (Brandt & Laiho, 2013; Conway, 2000).…”

Construction of Anxiety and Dimensional Personality Model in College Students

“…The predictive and practical value of this small correlation is negligible. Previous studies in this domain have yielded mixed results (see Gershuny & Sher, 1998;Meleddu & Guicciardi, 1998). In the original Eysenckian model of personality, neuroticism and extraversion should have a zero correlation (Eysenck, 1957).…”

“…More recently, Hong and Paunonen (2011) stated that high neuroticism is associated with a broad range of anxiety and mood disorders, whereas low extraversion is associated specifi cally with social phobia, agoraphobia, and depression. Some studies have suggested a negative relation between anxiety and extraversion, albeit weaker than the relation of anxiety and neuroticism (Ferrando, 1994;Meleddu & Guicciardi, 1998). However, other studies have not supported this fi nding (Gershuny & Sher, 1998).…”

Personality Antecedents of Self-Other Rating Discrepancy

“…In their study of student leaders at the US Naval Academy, Roush and Atwater (1992) also found individuals high on introversion provided performance ratings better aligned with those provided by their subordinates. Meleddu and Guicciardi (1998) found extraverted individuals tend to provide more socially desirable ratings. In the context of 360 performance evaluation, an extraverted individual may be inclined to provide high self-ratings of performance as these may be seen as more socially desirable than lower ratings.…”